Around here - still in lockdown in Brisbane

Brisbane went into a 3 day lockdown last Saturday 31st July, 2021 at 4.00 pm which was extended during the week to 4.00 pm tomorrow, Sunday 8th August, 2021.  We had 13 new cases today and 12 were in lockdown so no community transmission and the 13th is being looked into however they aren't to worried about this but are investigating.  Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said there will be many more cases within the families that are in lockdown in the coming weeks however they will all be isolating at home.  If one family member gets Covid the whole family are in isolation, if a few days later another family member gets Covid, the isolation days start from zero again and so on and so on.  She is expecting the cases to be similar each day however none of them will be in the community which is the "key factor" here.  It appears Sydney still have a large number of their cases out in the community which then transmits to others in the community and like ground hog day, the next same happens the next day.  It's the people out in the community when they are infectious is the main problem and so far Brisbane has managed to keep that under control with the initial 3 day lockdown however we are not out of the woods by any means yet.

My next door neigbour's were at an exposure site on the weekend and have tested negative and are isolating for 14 days.  I got them onto sourdough making last week so they are perfecting the perfect loaf before sending me a pic.  I made them some Lemon & Chia Seed Muffins yesterday and dropped it off at their front door, came home and sent a text to say that afternoon tea had been delivered.

This this morning I was letting the chickens out and the neighbours were in their back yard so we were talking all things Covid and Veggies.  Our yard drops down about a metre and a half from their yard so they look down and I look up for our chats.  I was standing about 4 metres from the fence line anyway and they asked me if I wanted some ginger.  Last year I was gifted some of their home grown ginger and in fact I used some of it this week even though it had iced up in the freezer so I was delighted that I was gifted another lot of ginger.  They were gifted the first piece of ginger and planted it a few years ago and from the little plant they get about 1.5kgs or more of ginger which at $45 a kg and organically home grown is worth it's weight in gold.  The piece of ginger on the right with all the dirt and tail is for me to plant into my garden.  Don't you just love neighbours who grow things.

Speaking of shop bought ginger don't get caught up packaging.  I just jumped onto Coles website and found this below.  If you pick up a piece of ginger and buy it the price is $45.00 per kg however if you get some packaged it's nearly double the price at $86.67 per kg.  Honestly this is just outrageous.  The one on the left is priced at 120 gms and the one on the right packaged is 150 gms for the extra 30gms and the packet you are paying $7.60.  Okay, I've just re-read this and the one on the right is organic however so is the one my neighour popped in a bag and threw over the fence for me.

I normally purchase my spices from our local bulk food store and just get what I need however I had to buy some ground ginger from the supermarket and 50gms was $3.70 and I needed 100gms so it cost $7.40 and if I bought it from my bulk food store it was $1.50 for 50gms so a total of $3.00 vs $7.40 from the supermarket.  It pained me to pay more than double for the same item however because of lockdown I only popped into the supermarket at 8.30 pm at night when the shelves were restocked and hardly any people were shopping which I felt was the safest this week.  I am going to make non-alcoholic ginger beer for the first time using Rhonda's recipe.  You can use ground ginger or real ginger however apparently the ground ginger gives you the flavour that you would be used to drinking a commercial ginger beer so I'm giving this a go first and then next time might try with the fresh ginger that my neighbour gave me.  Stay tuned for this kitchen experiment.

I am LOVING making our sourdough bread and if we weren't in lockdown I would be making some for my family and delivering it to them as well.  Honestly it's the best process and recipe from Elaine Boddy in the UK and it works every time.

I made some marmalade jam this week however I boiled it for 5 minutes too long so it's not runny however it was my first attempt so I'll know better next time.  I did have some on my yummy sourdough bread and it tasted great, just not the consistency I was going for.  I used this recipe form Cornersmith in Sydney. 

One of the great things to arrive this week was three books I got for my early birthday present in 5 weeks time.  I ordered them early because they were having a 40% sale.  OMG the books, there are 3 of them and each one is AMAZING and you just want to make everything in it.  I've made the Tahini-Roasted Muesli this afternoon however it's very similar to one I make but with a few different ingredients.  If you are after a birthday present I can highly recommend them all, I can't pick which is the best so just get them all either now or order them for Christmas.  Given Sydney is in lockdown and will be for some time supporting this family business is also a very good deed.  This is Cornersmith Instagram account if you want to get some inspiration.

These books are beautiful and amazing and I can highly recommend they are 100% worth getting.  It would also be a lovely gift for someone you know who are into food.